The Fire Inside
It’s never in doubt that Ressa will eventually get her big payday, but The Fire Inside brings fresh power to its familiar beats.
Directed by Rachel Morrison
Starring: Ryan Destiny, Brian Tyree Henry, Oluniké Adeliyi
Opens 7 February 2025
8/10
In the UK we were possibly too intoxicated by the sight of Paddington skydiving with the Queen in the brief national high of the 2012 Olympics to notice the gold medal triumph of the 17 year old Claressa “T-Rex” Shields in the women's middleweight boxing, but Rachel Morrison’s rousing debut, scripted by Moonlight director Barry Jenkins, is a knockout reminder.
There’s nothing revolutionary in the first half of the story. Ressa (brilliantly portrayed by Ryan Destiny) is a scrappy, determined little kid, escaping her own hard knock life in the projects of Flint, Michigan. She finds an inspirational mentor in cable guy and boxing coach Jason Crutchfield, who takes her under his wing, into his family home and guides her all the way to Olympic gold.
What distinguishes The Fire Inside from your standard gumshield biopic is that the movie doesn’t end there. Shields returns to Flint expecting life-changing glory and reward and finds precisely nothing has changed - in 2012 the idea of women’s boxing was apparently still too challenging for sponsors to get their heads round. It’s never in doubt that Ressa will eventually get her big payday, but The Fire Inside brings fresh power to its familiar beats.
